Kelly Embraces Challenge -- and Challenger -- of Trying to be a Starter

Long-time backup tackle works with first-round draft pick Isaiah Wilson with the knowledge that only one will be the Titans' right tackle this fall.

NASHVILLE – Every year it is the same thing with the NFL Draft.

A team selects a player – usually in an early round – with the idea that eventually he will challenge a veteran starter.

Sometimes, that starter is a well-known player who has had the job for a long time and the move creates national headlines. That was the case this year when the Green Bay Packers took quarterback Jordan Love 26th overall. Aaron Rodgers, an NFL MVP and eight-time Pro Bowler entrenched under center for more than a decade, did not necessarily appreciate the team’s decision.

Then there’s the Tennessee Titans’ decision to take tackle Isaiah Wilson with the No. 29 overall selection. That created doubts about Dennis Kelly’s status as their starting right tackle after just a matter of weeks. Kelly signed a contract extension in March with the idea that he would be a starter for the first time since his rookie year, but shortly after Wilson was picked general manager Jon Robinson declared those two would “battle it out.”

“I think it's just been one of those things where I knew going into this free agency back in the spring and then I ended up signing, that I was still going to have to earn it,” Kelly said in recent days. “So, I just approached it as when I signed, I was the starter and so I've always prepared to be a starter. Now I have a real shot at it, and so hopefully it all plays out.”

In four seasons with Tennessee, Kelly has started 16 games. Seven of them as an extra tight end and those “starts” were based on the call for the first offensive play. Four were at left tackle while Taylor Lewan served a suspension at the start of last season. The others were at right tackle in place of an injured Jack Conklin, the man he hopes to replace this fall.

Before that, he spent four seasons with Philadelphia, the final three as a depth guy.

With the start of training camp, the 6-foot-8, 321-pound Kelly and the 6-foot-6, 350-pound Wilson finally got the opportunity to size up one another in person.

“[He is a] guy that really seems to fit in well with this group,” Kelly said of the rookie. “Has a good sense of himself and has done a really good job of kind of hitting the ground running with our group. So that's what we got.”

It is a bona fide competition, the only one for an offense that returns starters at each of the other 10 positions.

Wilson characterized the adjustment to professional football as challenging when he conducted a virtual press conference Sunday. At times, he talked like a guy who just wants to find his way rather than one who has his sights set on a starting job.

At least he knows that help is available when he needs it.

“There’s been no awkwardness at all,” Wilson said. “Like, literally none. I haven’t felt anything weird from (Kelly) at all about us competing for the same spot. Actually, when I do things in practice that aren’t exactly right, he steps in and coaches me up on the side or shows me how to do something on the side or gives me a tip to help me the next time.”

This is Wilson’s first crack at pro football, and if he does not earn the starting job this season there is every reason to believe it will be his eventually.

For the 30-year-old Kelly, however, this is not only his best shot, it is likely his last one. And while he is willing to help his primary competition, he is not about to simply step aside.

“I'm under the understanding that I can only control what I can control,” Kelly said. “I'm not going to push him away or anything like that. If you have questions, I will talk to him. By the way, that's something I learned when I was younger. Older guys really helped me learn, helped me with different techniques, different tips, so I think it would just be terrible if I didn’t at least help him.

“But at the same time, I'm working on myself to be better and hopefully be the guy.”